Broken and Bleeding
by DragonKatGal
Summary: COMPLETE After the events in ‘Heroes’ things go a little differently for everyone involved, and Janet Fraiser finds that her journey has only just begun. NEW: Chapters 8, 9 & 10
1. Return to P3X666

Broken and Bleeding

DISCLAIMER: SG-1 isn't mine. sighs If it was Janet wouldn't have died.

SUMMARY: After the events in 'Heroes' things go a little differently for everyone involved, especially for Janet, who finds that her journey has only just begun.

SETTINGS: Set after Heroes 2. Keeping in mind I haven't seen this episode in ages, and it was actually about the tenth episode I've _ever _seen. Caught up since then, but haven't been able to rewatch Heroes yet.

PAIRING: There are gonna be some serious Sam/Janet undertones, but nothing overt I don't think.

ONWARDS:

CHAPTER ONE: RETURN TO P3X-666

It had been three days. Three horrible and silent days in which the whole of Stargate Command had tried to gather the shreds of their souls and continue on, but everyone's minds were still firmly on the events that had taken place halfway across the galaxy.

P3X-666.

They should have known that nothing good could have come from a designation so…well, the name spoke for itself.

It had been a trap, and SG-13 had been caught off guard by dozens of Anubis' jaffa warriors. Reinforcements had been sent in the form of SG teams 1 and 6, and a contingent of med-techs and the Chief Medical Officer of the SGC. It was possibly the worst mistake they could ever have made.

Senior Airman Simon Wells had been saved thanks to the quick and skilled hands of the SGC CMO, Doctor Janet Fraiser, but his was the last life that she would save. A single staff blast to the chest had thrown her to the ground, stopped her heart, and left her for dead. In the chaos of the retreat back to the gate, Doctor Fraiser had been left behind, the hardest decision ever made by any of the SGC personnel. But Janet Fraiser had died to save the life of Simon Wells, and the med-techs and Daniel Jackson had chosen to honour that sacrifice by doing everything possible to get Wells to the gate. Even if it meant leaving Janet's body behind.

Major Samantha Carter, Doctor Daniel Jackson and Tea l'c stepped through the gate to P3X-666 and stood, staring at the battlefield that had taken the life of not only the best doctor any of them had ever met, but one of their closest friends as well. Their commanding officer was noticeably absent, still recovering in the infirmary from a staff weapon blast that had thankfully been deflected by the new armour that a group of hidhly sought after scientists had been designing.

Daniel swallowed hard. He and the rest of SG-1 had volunteered for this mission, and he would see it through to the end no matter how painful it was. They were here to collect the body of the woman who had given her life to save another, and to bring home her remains for burial. The memorial service in front of the gate had been beautiful, but for those in Janet's life who hadn't been part of the SGC, they needed the finality of burying the body of their friend.

"Over-" Daniel's throat clogged up, and he had to cough softly before he could speak again. "Over here."

Teal'c and Carter silently followed him over to the small incline where Daniel had watched Janet Fraiser die. Daniel subtly swiped a hand over his eyes, trying to clear the image of Janet being thrown backwards, her cry of surprise, her chest blasted open, blood and pus oozing from the wound, her eyes staring blindly at the clouded sky.

Sam noticed the subtle movement and swallowed to keep her own tears back. She'd never had a closer friend than Janet, and she was feeling the loss more than anyone else. She and Janet had always been on the same wavelength about almost anything, and they'd made an incredible team whenever they worked together. They had always had a cohesive energy between them that made for a great working relationship and a deep personal friendship.

That had only been compounded by Janet adopting Cassandra when Sam herself had been unable to fulfil the role of mother that she'd so desperately wanted to be for the young alien child from Hanka. Now that Janet was gone, it would fall to Sam to play that role, though Cassandra was nearly eighteen and in college.

Sam shook her head, trying to focus on the mission at hand. She was unsuccessful until she heard Daniel murmur a quiet 'oh my god'.

Sam looked down to see what had Daniel so startled. Instead of finding the slowly decaying body of her best friend, all she found was her friends flattened clothing and a medical pack sitting beside them.

"What-" Sam started…

…only to be interrupted by Daniel's "she ascended."

"How is that possible?" Teal'c asked sombrely.

Even the stoic Jaffa had been affected by Janet's passing. He'd always respected the woman's knowledge and the fact that her mere presence could coerce even the fiercest Marine and Air Force Officers into complying to her wishes. Teal'c knew that he owed his life to the petite woman several times over, and he knew of no other whom he would trust so wholeheartedly with the health of his teammates now that Janet was gone.

"Well, we – we know that Oma and her disciples often watch over us," Daniel explained, crouching beside the carefully laid clothes.

Sam followed Daniel's example, digging Janet's dogtags from out of the collar of the black shirt. She studied them, noting the bloodstains, tears pricking her eyes as she read over the engraved details on the metal. She closed her hand around them, squeezing tightly before placing the tags in the breast pocket of her tac-vest.

"So…she's like you were," Sam said quietly. "Ascended."

"It certainly looks that way," Daniel replied.

Sam nodded quietly and closed her eyes, trying to deal with that new piece of information. Having her best friend be a member of the Ascended was far better than trying to deal with her death. In fact, it made her hopeful, knowing that Daniel had been returned to them. Perhaps Janet could be as well.

"DoctorFraiser truly was worthy of such a gift," Teal'c said quietly, his heart rejoicing at the fact that such a bright spirit had not merely been extinguished, but was rather starting a new journey.

"We should get back to the SGC," Sam said, carefully folding the bloodied clothing. "General Hammond will need to be informed."

Daniel nodded and picked up the abandoned medical kit and the trio made the walk back to the Stargate, dialling back to earth and entering the correct IDC. Each of them paused on the platform in front of the open wormhole, staring back at the planet that had ended the life of their friend and colleague, and had begun that same woman on a journey that would be filled with life-changing opportunities.

Teal'c and Daniel turned back to the Stargate and stepped through, leaving Sam standing alone on the planet that had changed so many lives by taking only one.

"Be safe Janet," she whispered softly. "Wherever you are."

Be nice, this is one of my first pure SG-1 fics. Enjoy and review please?

Toodles.

DKG.


	2. Return to Consciousness

CHAPTER TWO: RETURN TO CONSCIOUSNESS

Someone was screaming. She couldn't open her eyes to see who though, but when the scream sounded again, she realised that the pained sound had been torn from her own throat. Her body was on fire, she was sure of it. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, and she'd lost most of the feeling in her arms, though at this point it wasn't a bad thing.

"Tell me Tau'ri, and I will grant you a short reprieve."

Janet Fraiser lay perfectly still, whimpers escaping from bloodied lips. She couldn't think properly, couldn't comprehend what was happening to her. She'd lost time somewhere or other. She could remember kneeling over Airman Wells as he recorded a farewell message for his wife and unborn son, and then there was darkness. She could remember waking between then and now to bright lights and a claustrophobic feeling, but it was a faint memory and possibly caused by delirium.

"You will tell me, Tau'ri filth, and I will cease for the time being."

Janet managed to lift herself slowly and painfully onto her hands and knees, barely registering the fact that her clothing was missing as she spat out a mouthful of blood. She managed to get her right eye to open, the dried and caked blood cracking to allow her a small amount of vision.

Anubis' black robes swirled about her. Surrounding the room were five of the Kull Warriors along with a dozen Jaffa watching passively as she was tortured to within an inch of her life.

She opened her mouth and managed to croak out the only answer she'd been willing to give in the painful hours within Anubis' clutches. "Fraiser, Janet, Major. United States Air Force. 11-921-2325-349."

She was thrown to the ground again, and blackness descended upon her. She gratefully fell unconscious and Anubis looked on angrily.

"Return her to her cell. Inform me when she awakens."

------------------------

Anubis stared dispassionately down at his prisoner who lay naked and strapped to a metal table. Her eyes were glistening with tears and she was whimpering in pain as he circled the table, her eyes tracking his movements.

He lifted a small metal object and placed it several inches from her face. He waited until she'd focused on the golf-ball sized object, the metal spikes protruding from it looked as dangerous as they were, and Anubis took great pleasure in seeing his prisoner try and curl up in fear, only to be stopped by the restraints. He chuckled softly and watched in amusement as his prisoner seemed to straighten her posture and raise her chin defiantly.

"If you do not tell me what I wish to know…this device will be implanted into your brain, and your knowledge will be transferred to my ships memory banks."

His voice was soft, malicious, and the two-toned metallic sound that the Goa'uld spoke with. Except, this Goa'uld was nothing like the others. He definitely wasn't human, and if the rumours were true, he hadn't been for a long time.

"Now Tau'ri…what information will you tell me?"

"Do it," she dared him through clenched teeth. "Won't tell…you'll have to…kill me."

"You think I bluff?" he demanded angrily. "I will not hesitate to implant this device. I learnt so much of your world from Jonas Quinn."

"It won't work," she replied confidently, staring at him with defiant eyes. "It'll kill me the second you activate it. Jonas was more than human…his body could handle it. Mine won't."

Anubis almost growled with anger. Instead, he held his hand device over her heart and activated the stone within, sending his prisoner's body into convulsions. When he pulled his hand away from her, he noticed that after her coughing fit, she actually had the audacity to laugh at him.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

"You…you won't win," she coughed. "And you know it."

"I am a God!" he yelled.

"You're…nothing," she retorted. "And you'll get nothing from me."

And after a vicious backhand, she was unconscious once more.

----------------------

It had been a week and still Anubis had discovered nothing of worth from the woman he'd tortured so thoroughly. If he hadn't been so angry, he might have been impressed that a Tau'ri woman was strong enough to withhold information under duress.

"My lord."

Anubis' musings were interrupted by one of his many Jaffa.

"You have discovered information from the drone that was sent?" Anubis demanded.

"Yes my lord," the Jaffa replied. "The colonnade had much writing on it, and the most learned of your servants was able to decipher its meaning. He believes it to be a repository of the Ancients."

Anubis fell silent, and if he'd had facial features, he'd have grinned evilly and stroked his goatee.

"That is excellent news," Anubis replied.

"My lord, you know that no Goa'uld or Jaffa has ever been able to access this sort of technology of the Ancients," the Jaffa said nervously, hoping that his god wouldn't kill the messenger.

Anubis fell silent again, contemplating what he knew to be true. He needed the knowledge of the Ancients in order to find the Lost City. There, he knew there would be weapons like no others. Except no one who carried a symbiote would be able to access the technology left by the Ancients. He had none in his service who did not carry a goa'uld larvae.

No one in his service…

"The Tau'ri woman," Anubis said decisively. "Take her to the planet. The Ancients technology will work on a Tau'ri …"

"Of course my lord," the Jaffa replied, bowing deeply before scurrying out the door and towards the prisoners cell.

------------------------

Janet struggled violently as she was frogmarched to the Ring Room, and forcibly taken to the planet below. She had no idea what was happening to her, but she wanted to get away from her captors. Unfortunately for her, a week with no food, and only minimal amounts of water had taken its toll. She was lucky to be alive, she knew, and it was only the constant use of a sarcophagus that was keeping her that way.

Unfortunately for the doctor, Anubis never allowed the device to heal her completely. It was enough to keep her alive and completely miserable, but never enough to leave her at full strength. She had to admit that the goa'uld certainly knew how to keep her spirits at an all time low.

But she'd taken oaths when she'd joined the Air Force. If she was ever captured, she would do everything in her power to escape, and she would never give up any information. She had kept the second part of her oath, now she needed to do everything possible to escape.

Once on the planet, she was dragged towards a ruined building, the Jaffa guards pulling her up when she continuously tripped on the long pants that she'd been given, the thin clothing doing little to keep her warm. The shirt she wore was far too large, the hem of it hitting her mid-thigh, but she was grateful to be covered once more.

They pulled to a stop next to a blank portion of the wall. One of the guards walked to the column opposite the wall and pressed a small circular device. Janet jumped slightly as she saw a dark black…something emerge from the wall.

She squinted at it, knowing it looked familiar, but her tired mind couldn't think of where she'd seen it before.

The moment she was shoved closer, she had a flash of insight that she could have done without. Looking inside the device, she could see hundreds of lights shining and moving within in indistinct patterns. And then it came to her.

She knew what this was. She'd heard Colonel O'Neill describe what he'd seen. She'd seen pictures of the Ancients repository and she'd monitored Colonel O'Neill's health for the days that had followed his encounter with this exact device.

Her struggles doubled, and she rejoiced when she managed to get one arm free. She swung wildly at the Jaffa, but was overwhelmed quickly, the Jaffas using their brute strength and advantageous size to subdue her and hold her in front of the device.

She closed her eyes, hoping that perhaps the device wouldn't work. She knew it was a long shot, but she knew what Anubis' plan was, and she would be damned before she helped him find out anything that could be used against Earth.

She yelped when she felt something strong grip her head, knowing without a doubt that it wasn't either of her Jaffa guards. She felt two sharp pinpricks on either side of her forehead, and her eyes snapped open involuntarily. She tried to close them, but she was completely paralysed, staring at the flashing lights as her mind was accessed and violated, centuries worth of knowledge being placed into her brain and changing her very core self.

When the device let go of her, she slumped down, only to be caught by her two guards. She passed out just as she heard the telltale sound of the Stargate being activated.

"The chapaa'ai has opened," one of the Jaffa noted. "We must return this Tau'ri to Lord Anubis before we are discovered."

The Jaffa slung Janet over his shoulder, the two of them walking quickly towards the control rings. They noted the green uniforms of the intruders and quickly ringed back up to Anubis' ship.

"Were you successful?" Anubis demanded.

"The device activated when the healer looked into it, my lord," the Jaffa carrying the doctor replied. "We evacuated when the chapaa'ai opened. It was a group from the Tau'ri, my lord."

"We cannot allow them to discover the device," Anusbie stated firmly. "Send two of the gliders to destroy it."

"Of course my lord," the empty-handed Jaffa replied obediently before racing out of the room to ready four other Jaffa.

Anubis ordered the other Jaffa to place the Healer on the altar in the centre of the room. After relieving himself of his light burden, the Jaffa vanished from the room, leaving Anubis to stare down at what he hoped would be his newest ally, and his greatest source of information.

All the knowledge of the Ancients…now all he had to do was extract it from her.

------------------------

"We must not allow this device to fall into the hands of Anubis," Teal'c stated, his eyes tracking the two Deathgliders that flew overhead.

"Fine," Jack replied, stepping forward with a block of C4, ready to rig the device to explode.

"Jack!" Daniel yelled in horror.

"Sir he's right," Sam argued. "If we destroy it we lose our only chance to find the location of the Lost City."

"O'Neill," Teal'c said softly, his voice urging them to hurry in their decision as the gliders returned to try and again destroy the colonnade and SG-1 with it.

"Ah crap! Alright then, what?" Jack asked impatiently.

Daniel lunged towards the device in the wall, but was quickly intercepted by Jack who slammed him against the opposite wall. "No, no, no, no, no!"

"Jack somebody has to do it," Daniel argued. "The answer is in there! If we don't find the Lost City we're as good as dead. Let me do it."

"And who does the translating when you go Ancient?" Jack retorted. The foursome took cover as the hail of lasers from the gliders came close to their position. Jack knew he was probably going to regret his next action, but it was the only one that would make sense. Teal'c couldn't access the technology because he was Jaffa, Carter was far too valuable, and there was no way in hell he would let her do it, and Daniel would be the only one to understand him when he lost all of his English skills.

He took off his cap and handed it to Daniel. "In fact you're the one person who CAN do it."

Before anyone could stop him, Jack stepped forward…

"Jack!" "Sir!"

…and allowed the device to begin overwriting his mind with the knowledge of the Ancients.

Enjoy and review pliz?

Toodles.

DKG.


	3. Return to Captivity

CHAPTER THREE: RETURN TO CAPTIVITY

As his prisoner finally succumbed to the bliss of unconsciousness, Anubis turned his rage on the nearest Jaffa, who stood before him nearly trembling in fear.

"Why will she not tell me what I wish to know!" he demanded angrily. "It has been two days, and still she refuses to answer."

"I know not, my lord," the Jaffa replied, hoping against hope that his voice wasn't shaking as badly as his hands. "Perhaps the Tau'ri are stronger than we believed."

"Impossible," Anubis growled. "She is a woman! She has the knowledge of the Ancients, and she refuses to divulge it."

The Jaffa chose not to answer, and watched his god pace in anger around the small room.

"Take her back to her cell."

"My lord…if she is not placed in the sarcophagus, her injuries will kill her," the Jaffa said, not tremendously worried about the small Tau'ri woman that intrigued his master so much, but worried that he would be blamed if she were to die.

"I said take her to her cell," Anubis repeated, his voice soft and slow. "If she will tell me nothing of use, than she will feel the full brunt of my wrath."

------------------------

When Janet Fraiser woke once more, she lay perfectly still, trying to keep from crying from the pain running throughout her body. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in Anubis' clutches, but she was certain that it had been more than three weeks. And each day had been the same. First he'd wanted any and all information about Earth, but she had given him nothing but her name, rank and serial number.

Now he was after the Knowledge of the Ancients, and even if she had been able to access it, she wouldn't have given it to him. The problem was, she knew that she didn't have long before it would start taking over her brain as well as her body. She could clearly remember the trouble Colonel O'Neill had had when he'd had the Knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into his mind several years back.

She would begin speaking in a language that she'd never been taught, and she'd had impulses to do and build things beyond her wildest imagination. She didn't know if the new Knowledge within her mind would care that Anubis was an enemy. She had a funny feeling that whether she liked it or not, she could, quite possibly, help Anubis create a weapon with the Knowledge, and be the one responsible for wiping out the earth.

Definitely _not_ something she wanted on her conscience.

She shifted slightly, trying to ease the pressure on the broken ribs she knew she had. Her back was covered in bruises and bloody gauges that marred the once perfectly tanned flesh. Anubis took great pleasure in poking her with what seemed to be the Goa'uld version of a cattle prod and listening to her scream.

Janet took a deep breath and held it for several seconds, trying to listen to her surroundings. After a moment, she realised she was alone, and let out the breath she'd been holding. Slowly and with great difficulty, she sat herself up, propping her back gently against the wall and looking around the room.

Without even noticing, her right foot began tapping a staccato rhythm on the floor, her hands twisting in anxiety. Except it wasn't that she was anxious about her next meeting with Anubis. She had to do something.

What that something was, she had no idea, but…she knew she had to do it.

------------------------

Twelve hours later, when two Jaffas came to escort her to see Anubis, she managed to wrench herself from their grasps, and race frantically down the hallway, locking herself in a storage room and barricading the doors. She could hear the staff blasts on the doors outside, and she heard the Jaffa shouting orders at one another, and at her, but she was a woman with a mission. The Knowledge didn't care that she was injured, half starved and bleeding to death. The Knowledge wanted what it wanted, and it wouldn't be ignored.

She quickly walked to one of the storage boxes and pushed the lid off, revealing several zat'n'ktels. She carefully picked one of them up, running her fingernail along the top edge and finding a small groove. She applied a slight amount of pressure and was gratified to see a panel open to reveal the zat's power source, a small dark blue crystal rod. She pocketed the crystal and quickly dismantled another three zat's as well, collecting their power sources for later use.

She grabbed the last zat for self-defence, quickly practicing with the unfamiliar weapon. Regardless of how many times she'd seen SG teams using the weapons, she'd never actually had to fire a zat in a combat situation before. She'd been drilled in their use though. One shot stuns, two shots kills, three shots disintegrates.

There was nothing more in the room that would be of use to her, and she quietly moved the barricade against the door. She couldn't hear any sounds of the Jaffa outside the door, but she knew from years of being acquainted with Teal'c that the Jaffa could be incredibly stealthy when they wanted to be.

She went to one knee, knowing that if the Jaffa would fire at her, they'd instinctively go at chest height. Sometimes being petite had its advantages, and anything fired at normal chest level would go straight over her head.

She quickly opened the door, firing her zat at the two Jaffa who had been silently guarding her door.

She made a dash for it when she saw them both fall under the electric charge, and she let her new instincts guide her. She had no idea where the Knowledge wanted to take her, but she knew that there was no point in trying to resist it. Whatever it wanted, it would eventually get, and it would be worse if she tried to resist it. Plus, the Knowledge seemed intent on getting her away from Anubis, and she definitely wasn't opposed to that.

She made it into the main control room of Anubis' ship, and using the ships controls, she locked the door to the room from the inside, ensuring that no one could sneak up on her. Opening up a panel of complex looking crystals, Janet paused, trying to comprehend what the Knowledge was telling her.

She had no real idea what these crystals did. A stray thought about Sam Carter, and her extensive knowledge of all things Goa'uld flitted through her mind before she abruptly pushed it away. She didn't have time to think about her friends, or her home, or…or about Cassie. She was stuck, millions of light years from Earth, in Anubis' ship, with the Knowledge of the Ancients downloaded into her mind.

She let the Knowledge take over her hands, removing and rearranging crystals, knowing she was tampering with the ships life support systems as well as their navigational tools. She had no idea what effect it would have, but she was hoping that she wasn't actively helping Anubis find what he was looking for.

Janet rearranged another set of crystals, and nearly toppled over when the ship abruptly entered hyperspace. She could hear the sounds of Jaffa guards outside the doors yelling angrily at one another as they tried to work out what their prisoner was doing to their ship.

She pressed her palm against her temple, wishing the pounding headache would cease, and in a moment of panic, she realised what was happening to her. She'd seen Jack O'Neill begin using too much of his brain capacity than was healthy or normal for a human, and it had started out as a stabbing headache. This was it…there was no turning back. She was shocked out of her depressing thoughts by a booming voice.

"Tau'ri!" Anubis voice sounded over the ships intercom system. "Cease what you are doing at once. Surrender yourself, and you will come to no harm."

"Wish I believed you Nubie, but you lack credibility," Janet muttered to herself as she closed the panel to the controls. She moved to sit herself in front of a large desk of controls, looking up in awe as she saw the holographic screen rise in front of her. It gave her the layout of the ship, and she knew it would allow her to control most, if not all of the ships vital functions.

She brought up the screen that would show her the movements of the Jaffa, the Kull Warriors and of Anubis, surprised to see how few of each of his guards he had on the ship. She'd have expected more of the most feared System Lord since Apophis, but obviously they'd been overestimating him.

Then again, she knew that SG-1 had dealt a serious blow to Anubis when they'd destroyed a queen Goa'uld that had been helping him to create more Kull Warriors.

Janet quickly traced a path to the glider bay, hoping against hope that it would be largely unguarded. Then again, with her little escapade, getting out of the main control room was going to be an interesting feat. A smile curled on her lips.

What she needed, she realised, was a diversion.

And after working with people like Colonel O'Neill and Sam Carter, she had brushed up on her diversionary tactics in order to get them to sit still long enough to go through their pre and post-mission physicals.

Working quickly, she managed to lock down several areas of the ship, meaning that there were less guards that would have access to where she wanted to go. Working with the Knowledge, she purposefully removed a power crystal to one of the spare engines and replaced it with a much more powerful one. Too powerful in fact. She did a quick countdown in her head, grinning in satisfaction as she heard the echo of an explosion, and the pandemonium it caused in the hall.

Success!

Glancing at the holographic screen that monitored the positions of the beings within the ship, she noticed that there were only five Jaffa still remaining outside the door in wait. And the Knowledge had no use for being captured. Trusting that instinct, she opened the door and allowed the Knowledge free reign.

Four and a half minutes and five dead Jaffa later, she was racing down the hallway to the glider bay, when suddenly out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a very familiar room. One she had seen all too often over the last two weeks. The room where the sarcophagus was kept. She came to an abrupt halt, and crept inside, tampering with the control panel that would activate the locking mechanism on the door. The Knowledge had a new idea…

Much thanks for your feedback! Hope you continue to enjoy this little fic o'mine.

Toodles.

DKG.


	4. Return to Antarctica

CHAPTER FOUR: RETURN TO ANTARCTIC

SG-1 knew that time was not on their side. They'd shipped to a planet that O'Neill had called 'Proklarush Taonas' in the hopes of finding the lost city of the Ancients. What they'd found didn't resemble a lost city at all. It resembled a lost room. A big lost room, but nothing more than that. The team had watched as Jack had taken a seat in the chair on the dais and fiddled with the settings of the room, first making the atmosphere safe, and then by showing the group a three-dimensional map of the entire galaxy.

"Sir…why are you showing us this?" Sam asked after O'Neill had made the star map hone in to earth and its solar system. She was fascinated by what the map showed, but they didn't have a lot of time to be looking at all the incredible things the Ancients had left behind. Had there been more time, she'd have let herself be amazed at what the map was showing.

"Terra Atlantis," Jack replied concisely.

"Terra's Earth," Daniel translated. "Atlantis…"

"The lost city of Atlantis!" Sam asked incredulously.

"Are you saying the lost city of the Ancients is here?" Daniel asked, pointing to the image of earth.

"Antarctica," Sam said, following O'Neil's line of sight. That didn't bode well. Things had never gone well for any of them whenever they were in Antarctica.

"Subo glacios," Jack affirmed.

"Under the ice," Daniel explained. "The city we've been looking for is under the ice of Antarctica."

"It's been on Earth the whole time?" Sam asked.

"Jack, we were just there!" Daniel said in frustration.

"So we came all this way just to find out that we have to go all the way back," Sam surmised, joining Daniel in his indignation.

"No!" O'Neill yelled, fiddling with the settings of the room once more. The holographic image disappeared and the chair straightened. He pulled the top of his Hazmat suit on, and the others quickly followed his example.

O'Neill stood and walked to the edge of the dais, kneeling at the corner. He waved his hand over a portion, and a glowing device rose out of the step. With a reverence that the team usually never saw from their commanding officer, O'Neill pulled it free and handed it to Sam who stared at it in confusion before recognising what it was.

"A power source," Sam said in satisfaction. The trip hadn't been a waste after all. She clicked her radio on to transmit a signal up to the waiting Al'kesh on the surface of the planet. "Bra'tac, we're on our way. We know the location of the lost city. It's on Earth."

-----------------------

Two Jaffa warriors stood before their lord, eyes down as Anubis sat, still and silent on the throne-like chair in the peltac of his ship.

"We were able to restore the controls of the ship, my lord," one of the Jaffa said quietly. "We have not yet been able to enter the room that the Tau'ri woman has barricaded herself within however."

Anubis was not impressed. "Set a course for earth. The Tau'ri will feel my wrath, and they shall finally know what true fear is. The fleets of my armada will destroy their defences and I shall rule their planet."

"Of course my lord," the second Jaffa said, grateful for an excuse to scurry from the unhappy system lord.

"And the Tau'ri woman?" the Jaffa asked. "Somehow she has locked the door from the inside, and even the main control crystals have been unable to gain us access."

"She will have to come out of there eventually," Anubis replied. "And when she does…she'll be just in time to see us destroy the planet she so loves."

------------------------

Janet Fraiser woke once more to bright white lights, her eyes quickly adjusting as the lid to the sarcophagus slowly opened. The headache that she'd worried over earlier was gone, but…something was different. Something had changed.

She gave a mental shrug as she awkwardly climbed out of the sarcophagus, glancing at the door with a triumphant grin, thankful it had held throughout the two hours she'd been in the sarcophagus. Every injury that she'd sustained since being shot on P3X-666 had healed, and she felt better than she had in days. Moving to the top end of the sarcophagus, Janet pulled open a small panel and removed the four blue crystal rods she'd taken from the zat's. She'd known they would come in handy, and they'd effectively doubled the speed that the sarcophagus should have taken had the crystals not been in place.

She pocketed them again, not knowing why, but trusting the Knowledge to let her know when it was necessary.

That thought brought her up short. The Knowledge. She still had the Knowledge within her mind, but the headache was gone. The urge to build anything was gone, and she could actually think straight.

It came to her in an insight she knew wasn't her own. The sarcophagus hadn't removed the Knowledge from her. What she couldn't work out was why it had worked the way it had.

And then it hit her. She could recall Daniel Jackson discovering that the Goa'uld sarcophagus had actually been a hybrid of Ancient technology. She'd known how to tamper with the device because it had once been Ancient technology, rather than the Goa'ulds. And if the Knowledge was correct, the Rings, the Stargate and the DHD would be at her disposal as well.

The sarcophagus had integrated the Knowledge fully within her. It had given her the necessary time to cope with what it was trying to do, and the sarcophagus had healed the damage it had done in overwriting her memories.

Except, regardless of what she'd told Jack O'Neill so long ago, it hadn't removed her memories. It had given her new ones. Or old ones, actually. Very, very old ones. If she was right about this, she had the memory of all the Ancients that had ever lived. She supposed it was much like the inbuilt genetic memory of the Goa'uld.

And speaking of Goa'uld, she was still on Anubis' ship. Except…he wasn't just a Goa'uld. He was a half Ascended Goa'uld, stuck between corporeal existence and being pure energy.

The Knowledge whispered within her mind, words and images flowing quickly, telling the doctor what it wanted from her. She absently nodded in agreement before grabbing hold of the zat she'd laid beside the sarcophagus. Letting the Knowledge guide her movements, she opened the door, zatted the Jaffa guards and dashed to the peltac, where Anubis sat on his throne, gazing out the main window of the mothership.

"Tau'ri!" Anubis yelled as he spotted the small woman enter the peltac. He waved his hand for the Jaffa guards to lower their weapons. He wanted the satisfaction of crippling this woman's spirit completely, and having her watch the destruction of her planet would work nicely. He stood and moved down the stairs, watching her in fascination. He hadn't been expecting the woman to walk into his presence voluntarily.

"Garone," she replied, spitting at his feet in disgust.

Anubis stopped short and glanced at the Jaffa guards, who shifted nervously at the confrontation.

"Leave us," Anubis ordered.

The Jaffa's hesitated a moment before scattering throughout the ship.

"It is true then…all the knowledge of the Ancients…at my mercy."

"_I know who and what you are_ Garone," Janet said, the words coming from her lips, a strange and lyrical –_Ancient_- language that she was barely aware of speaking. It came to her naturally, and the very idea of speaking in English seemed foreign to her somehow. She stared up at the black shield that housed the energy field of Anubis. "_I know how to destroy you_."

"And I know how to destroy your planet, Tau'ri," Anubis replied, pointing to the massive window behind Janet.

Janet glanced over her shoulder, taking in the sight of earth from so far away. Her eyes widened as she realised where exactly they were headed. The Antarctic. She knew what was hidden there.

As if merely thinking about the hidden outpost had brought it to life, she could hear the Ancient technology below humming to life, a gentle swell of music rising in her mind, calming her down and reassuring her that this was a battle that Anubis had no hope of winning.

Someone had activated the Opelia. It hadn't been used in centuries, and had in fact, remained hidden. It had been used many times before, many millennia ago when the Ancients had roamed the earth. The Opelia was awake, and it would not fail.

Janet glanced back at Anubis, smirking slightly.

"_Surrender_ Garone," she said firmly. "_You will not find what you are looking for. You will die with dishonour, and you will be banished from all worlds_."

"Do not say that name," Anubis demanded. "I am not Garone!"

"_You were. Once_," Janet replied, the words tumbling from her lips before she had a real chance to even think about them. "_Before you became power hungry. Before you decided to abuse that which you were freely given. You were an Ancient, infested by a Goa'uld who attempted to Ascend. You were banished from the Ascended, and the System Lords wanted nothing to do with you. You are an outcast. A disgrace. And you_, Garone, _will be sent to oblivion_."

"Perhaps," Anubis said after a moment of silence. He was rattled, but there was no power in the galaxy that could make him admit that. "But so will your planet Tau'ri. If I am to die, then I will not be doing so alone."

"_Yes…you will_."

Enjoy, and please review!

Toodles

DKG.


	5. Return to Earth

CHAPTER FIVE: RETURN TO EARTH

"Anubis cannot have missed our arrival," Teal'c commented to the other passengers of the scout ship.

Daniel Jackson and Sam Carter exchanged worried glances, looking uncertainly at Jack O'Neill who was kneeling beside the transport rings, attempting to increase their power outage, allowing the Knowledge to guide his hands.

"You are correct," Bra'tac affirmed. "Al'kesh and gliders approach. Many. They will be in firing range in thirty seconds. More ships approaching from the opposite direction."

Sam had a bad feeling that the scout ship was about to get blown out of the sky.

"Sir," she yelled to Jack, who didn't even glance up at her shout. "We're about to get our ass-"

"They are not Goa'uld," Bra'tac suddenly observed, taking a closer look at the second group of ships heading their way.

Sam ran to the front window, glancing out to get a better look.

Bra'tac was right. The ships approaching weren't Goa'uld at all. A squadron of X302's were heading their way, and rapidly approaching the Al'kesh and Deathgliders that were threatening the safety of SG-1 and Teal'c mentor Bra'tac.

"Prometheus!" Sam exclaimed in awe. She hadn't been expecting to see the ship at all, and knowing that there were people at their back made the next part of their mission a lot less stressful.

"SG-1, this is Hammond, do you read?" came their commanding officer's voice over the intercom system.

"Yes sir, it's good to see you," Sam replied, not at all stunned that it was Hammond taking charge of the Prometheus. She knew that General Hammond would do everything in his power to protect their scout ship, and there was no way that the General would allow anything past them if he could help it. She glanced over at Daniel and Teal'c and nodded towards the transport rings. "Let's go."

------------------------

"We are in range, my lord," Anubis' First Prime announced, entering the room, appearing to be completely oblivious to the tension between his lord and the small Tau'ri woman in front of him.

"Fire," Anubis commanded.

------------------------

The Knowledge would not allow this to happen. The Knowledge could not sit by and idly watch as the planet that had once been home was destroyed. And the Knowledge could not allow for Anubis to survive the attack from the Opelia when the time came. The Knowledge had no doubt that the weapon would work, but that Anubis would not cease to exist even with the destruction of his ship. It wasn't possible to destroy energy…but it could be transformed.

Janet Fraiser did not fully understand what the Knowledge was telling her. And then she heard a familiar voice in her mind, an Ancient that she'd spoken with, an Ancient that had healed her with only her hand and the sheer strength of will. Ayaina. Ayaina's voice was instructing her. Ayaina was the Ancient who best understood the body, and even though she'd chosen not to ascend, she understood the process through the sharing of Knowledge within one mind.

Janet took two steps forward and concentrated all of her energy into her right hand. Without a moment of hesitation, she brought her hand up and thrust her palm into the black murky energy encased behind Anubis' cloaking shield.

Anubis' First Prime stepped forward, his staff weapon raised to blast the Tau'ri woman for attacking his master, but before he could ready the weapon, his master and the prisoner were encased in a blinding white light. Herac, the First Prime to Anubis, could only turn his head away, unable to watch, and fearful of what was about to happen.

When the light finally died down, Herac forced himself to look up, only to nearly choke on his shock. Where his master had once had a proud bearing, and a smoking black energy, a short, tubby and balding man was glaring angrily at the woman before him. _This_ was his master?

"My lord?" Herac asked.

But Anubis was far too angry to answer his First Prime.

"You will not get away with this!" he yelled angrily.

The voice was no longer the two-toned sound that the Goa'uld spoke with. And while there was anger tinging his voice, he sounded no more threatening than the average Tau'ri male.

"_I already have _Garone. _You betrayed us once. We will not allow it to happen again_," the Knowledge said, speaking in the quiet voice of Janet Fraiser.

Anubis lunged for the woman, but Janet merely sidestepped and shook her head.

Anubis' defeat was further compounded by the sudden thudding sounds of his ship being attacked, and his shields completely failing. Anubis looked up in shock, staring out the window of the peltac, looking on in shock as he recognised the Ancient Loilalies that flew around the ship, destroying it piece by piece. The Tau'ri had discovered the outpost. They'd found a power source to make it work, and they had someone with the correct DNA to use it.

When he turned to glare at the Tau'ri woman who had so successfully defeated him, she was gone.

Moments later, Anubis' ship was nothing more than tiny pieces of debris floating in Earth's orbit, and Anubis himself was destroyed for eternity.

------------------------

Below the ice and inside the outpost of the Ancients, Daniel, Sam and Teal'c watched as the last of the bright squid shaped creatures was shot from the Ancient weapon. Without even a warning sound, the lights in the cavern went dark, and without looking, they all knew that their commanding officer had lost control of the Ancient seat he'd been controlling.

"Sir?" Sam whispered softly, moving from her position at the cavern entrance and hurrying over to Jack. She gently lifted his head, checking his pulse. "His pulse is erratic."

Daniel moved forward, worried for his friend, and Teal'c abandoned his guarding post to step closer.

"Don't you dare leave us now," Sam said softly, her voice quietly passionate and her eyes filling with tears at the thought of losing Jack now. "We won."

Jack weakly opened his eyes, and Sam gently took hold of his chin. "Colonel?" But O'Neill could only gaze at her, his eyes more serious than she'd ever seen them. "Please, Jack."

"_Dolmata_," Jack whispered.

Sam remembered Daniel's translation of that word from earlier. Sleep. It didn't sound encouraging. What they needed was a miracle. And then the transport rings activated…


	6. Return to Freedom

CHAPTER SIX: RETURN TO FREEDOM

Teal'c and Sam spun with trained reflexes, their guns pointed at the rings, waiting for whatever had just transported itself down to make its move. Except the heap of clothing lying on the floor wasn't making any sort of movement at all. Sam cautiously stepped forward, her gun aimed at the suspicious figure that lay on the ground, the figure sparking with the familiar blue electricity from a zat blast.

The mass of clothing moved slowly, turning to lie on its back. Sam could have sworn that her heart stopped, and her gasp of shock brought both Daniel and Teal'c forward to see what had startled her.

"Oh my god," Daniel whispered.

He stepped forward, not even considering the dangers, kneeling down to check the pulse of the figure hidden by too-large clothing.

"Janet?" he whispered. "Janet, can you hear me?"

"_Hear you_," she whispered, though it was only Daniel that understood what she said.

Sam dropped to her knees beside her friend, wondering what the hell was going on. "What did she just say?" Sam asked.

"She…she said she heard me."

"Am I mistaken in thinking that DoctorFraiser is speaking in the language of the Ancients," Teal'c put forward.

"No, no, you're definitely not mistake," Daniel replied.

The trio watched as Janet struggled to pull herself into a seated position, and Sam quickly helped her to her feet. After taking a moment to push off the dizziness, Janet looked around the outpost –the Opelia- and breathed in deeply.

She gently extricated herself from Sam's worried hands and cautiously made her way over to where Jack was still seated on the control chair.

"_Brother_," she greeted him.

With effort, Jack managed to open his eyes and stared at Janet as though he was seeing her for the first time. His shaking hand reached out to her and she took hold of it, closing her eyes and pushing out a little of her energy to lend him some strength.

"_Thank you_," Jack whispered.

She nodded and helped Jack out of the chair. They stood, staring at each other with an intensity that none of the others had ever seen before. Silent conversation flowed between them, and the trio standing behind them just watched in awe before Jack finally nodded, and placed his right palm over Janet's heart, the doctor mimicking the position over Jack's heart with her own hand.

"What are they doing?" Sam asked quietly.

"I have no idea," Daniel replied slowly, shaking his head.

Sam wasn't sure what she expected. Except a moment later, both Jack and Janet sagged and collapsed to the ground, and the trio raced to their sides, Sam checking Jack's pulse and Daniel checking Janet's.

"Pulse is normal," Sam proclaimed with more than a little amazement. Not even a minute ago, Jack's pulse had been running a marathon beneath her fingers, and now it was as steady as hers.

"Janet's is running a little fast, but…nothing too unusual," Daniel replied.

"Perhaps we should contact General Hammond," Teal'c suggested. "They will have adequate medical facilities on the Prometheus."

"Good idea Teal'c," Sam replied.

Carter quickly radioed Hammond, and told him to prepare for two casualties, though she didn't name names. There were some things that needed to be seen to be believed.

Teal'c moved to pull Jack into a fireman's carry, and between Sam and Daniel, they managed to get Janet's arms slung over a shoulder each. They moved towards the transport rings. Daniel took over keeping Janet steady as Sam activated the rings and quickly ducked back into the circle, and the beam transported them to the Prometheus above.

SG-1 wasn't all that surprised to see General Hammond waiting for them personally in the Ring Room, Sergeant Davis at his side. Sam was watching the General carefully, and took great delight in seeing the completely shocked and flabbergasted expression on his face when he realised that there were five of them being transported up from the icy cavern.

"SG-1…you certainly are full of surprises."


	7. Return to Colorado

CHAPTER SEVEN: RETURN TO COLORADO

Jack's eyes fluttered open, the bright lights overhead hitting his sensitive pupils, and his eyes closed quickly.

"Colonel?" he heard a soft voice question from beside him.

Jack tried opening his eyes again, looking away from the light. The sight of his 2IC's face hovered over him and he couldn't help but breathe better just from seeing her at his side.

"Carter," he managed to rasp.

Sam quickly reached across to the bedside table to get the cup of water that sat there. She held it steady as O'Neill took a sip from the straw, feeling better than he had in days as he swallowed the cool liquid.

"How are you feeling, sir?" Sam asked.

"Normal," he replied. His mind was trying to put together the bits and pieces of the last few days, and his head cocked to the side curiously as he remembered seeing something that was definitely unusual. "I know I was nuts for the last few days, and it's possible that I was hallucinating, but…I coulda sworn I saw the Doc."

When Sam Carter's gentle smile turned to a full grin, Jack felt his breath catch in his throat, and he savoured the sight. It wasn't often that Sam smiled like that, and to have it directed at him was just mind-blowing.

"You did sir," she assured him. Sam looked over her shoulder to the infirmary bed next to Jack's, and the Colonel struggled to prop himself onto his elbow to see across to where the petite doctor lay sleeping.

"Y'know, I'm starting to think that we should stop holding memorial services for SGC personnel until we're _really_ certain they're not coming back," Jack mused.

Sam smirked a little, feeling more light-hearted than she had in months. Her best friend was back from the dead, and her CO was back to his usual snarky self. She couldn't have been more thrilled than she was. Life was back to normal, or so she hoped.

"How's she doing?" Jack asked.

"Vitals are normal," Sam replied. "She hasn't woken up yet. You two have been asleep for the last two days."

"Two days?" Jack repeated. "Huh…feels like longer."

"Anubis is gone," Sam suddenly said, changing the topic abruptly. "Whatever weapon was hidden in that outpost, it worked. It got through his shields and took down his ship. The Prometheus and a squadron of X-302's went head to head with Anubis' Al'kesh and his Deathgliders."

"We saved the world," Jack murmured, lowering himself to lay back down on the bed.

"Yeah…you did," Sam replied softly.

Their eyes met and locked, a thousand things they could never acknowledge aloud being spoken with just one look. And while both knew, and had even acknowledged that there was more than just friendship and respect between them, it was all there would ever be. It was these quiet moments that made it all worth it.

Their moment was spoiled by Daniel stepping into the infirmary with Teal'c following, a smile on the archaeologists face, and the hint of a grin on Teal'c's.

"You're awake," Daniel greeted the Colonel.

"Pretending to be awake, maybe," Jack replied.

"Well, you're not speaking Ancient anymore, so that's a good sign," Daniel commented. "We were a little worried."

"Yeah, how is that exactly?" Jack asked curiously. "Thor pay a little visit while I was asleep?"

The other three SG-1 members traded glances, a little uncomfortable with the topic. They were still no closer to finding out exactly what had happened two days ago, and the only one who had the answers was still unconscious in the bed beside Jack's.

"Not exactly sir," Sam answered.

"So…how'd I get un-Anciented?"

Daniel tried not to wince at the completely mangled word.

"We believe that it was DoctorFraiser who restored you to your normal state," Teal'c explained.

Jack paused, lifting onto his elbow again to get another look at the doctor. He'd never really appreciated just how many times he'd hurt himself until the Doc hadn't been there. The infirmary had felt cold and empty without her presence, and he'd missed the gentle teasing and the quiet confidence that his Napoleonic Power Monger had exuded. Seeing her again was a sharp reminder of how much he and everyone else at the SGC had missed their CMO. Her replacement, Doctor Julia Brightman, hadn't come anywhere close to filling Fraiser's shoes, and having the Doc back was definitely a good thing.

"Well, we knew the Doc could work miracles, but…" Jack trailed off uncertainly.

"We don't know how she did it Jack," Daniel stated quietly. "She hasn't woken up, and…"

"Her EEG readings are almost identical to the readings you had with the repository downloaded into your head," Sam filled in.

"How is that possible?" Jack asked worriedly.

Daniel glanced over at the sleeping doctor, worried for his friend. He'd definitely missed seeing her, and when he'd laid his eyes on her in Antarctica, he'd felt more than a little relief.

"We're not sure. We do know that she was speaking in the language of the Ancients when she showed up in Antarctica," Daniel said.

"I thought you said the Doc _ascended_," Jack said, making a vague hand gesture.

"We may have been wrong about that," Sam admitted quietly.

"Then where the hell was she?" Jack cried, unable to think straight. He was tired and cranky, and that didn't lead to coherent thought processes.

"It is possible that DoctorFraiser was a prisoner aboard Anubis' ship," Teal'c said quietly. "If Anubis truly was an Ancient, he would know enough to stage an ascension to lead us to believe that DoctorFraiser was safe. We would not search for one whom we believed was no longer on our plane of existence."

Jack's brow furrowed and he felt sick to his stomach. He had spent two days in Ba'al's hands, and he had no fond memories of that time. He'd been tortured for information he hadn't understood, and he'd barely withheld what he knew. He couldn't imagine spending the better part of three weeks in Anubis' hands.

He was broken out of his musing when a soft shuffling of sheets sounded from the next bed over. SG-1 turned their attention to the slowly waking Janet Fraiser who blinked rapidly, trying to adjust her eyes to the harsh overhead lights. Sam was at her side in an instant, taking the doctor's small hand in her own.

"Janet?" Sam whispered softly.

Janet swallowed and she licked her dry lips, staring up at Sam. The blonde woman couldn't help the tears that welled in her eyes at the sight of her best friend, a woman she'd convinced herself she'd never see again.

"Sam," Janet replied, her voice soft and croaky.

"Do you know where you are?" Sam asked gently.

"_Home_," Janet replied, a smile lifting the corners of her lips.

Sam's own smile faltered slightly, and she looked to Daniel for translation.

"Home," Daniel explained, a sad smile working its way onto his lips.


	8. Return to Uncertainty

CHAPTER EIGHT: RETURN TO UNCERTAINTY

"I don't understand…how can you be speaking in Ancient?" Sam asked softly, still not entirely convinced that this wasn't some elaborate scheme cooked up by the Goa'uld. She'd never even considered any other possibility about Janet's disappearance than her presumed Ascension, and having evidence to suggest otherwise was making her uncomfortable.

Janet paused and she closed her eyes, her face scrunching slightly as she tried her hardest to concentrate on something. "Forget…"

Sam's eyes brightened. "You forget? You've forgotten how to speak English?"

Janet nodded slowly. She could understand them well enough, but her thoughts and the Knowledge were jumbled together, and it was making it hard to remember her native tongue. Having the thoughts of thousands of Ancients, all speaking in their own language was making it hard for her own thoughts to translate through to English. She could remember the words, but getting them across was a different matter.

"Of course, that's exactly what happened to Jack," Daniel said, excitement tinging his voice. "He still understood us, he just couldn't remember the words. The Knowledge was taking over his native language. But you understand us perfectly, don't you?"

Janet nodded.

"How…how did this happen?" Sam asked. "Why did this happen?"

"Anubis," Janet replied, hatred tinging her voice in a way that none of the others had heard since Janet's altercation with Nirtti.

"Anubis…Anubis did this to you? How?" Daniel asked.

"_Repository_," Janet replied, her mind unable to think of the English for the word.

Daniel paled slightly. "He got there first," he whispered to himself.

Jack, Sam and Teal'c all looked at him expectantly. It took him a moment to work out that his teammates were all looking to him to elaborate on his mutterings and he shook himself out of his daze.

"P3X-439," Daniel said. "Anubis got there first. That's why he started shooting at us. He didn't care if he destroyed the repository of the Ancients, because he got there first. And seeing as no one in Anubis' service doesn't have a Goa'uld symbiote, the only way he could access the repository was with someone human."

"Janet," Sam whispered unnecessarily.

Daniel nodded, then shook his head in disgust.

"What did he do to you?" Daniel asked, turning to look at Janet, his eyes intense, yet still sympathetic.

Janet looked away from the group, and SG-1 felt sickened. Even Teal'c was unable to take the news stoically, and the sudden visions and images of the torture that their friend would have gone through ran through their minds.

"What can you tell us?" Sam asked gently. "What did you do to Colonel O'Neill?"

"Took…Knowledge," Janet replied haltingly.

"You took the Knowledge from him?" Daniel asked.

Janet nodded. "Healed."

"Healed…you healed him. The Knowledge was killing him, so to heal him, you took it?" Daniel asked. He waited for Janet to nod before continuing. "Why aren't you…the Knowledge made Jack nearly insane. How are you still, I don't know, functioning?"

"_Dolmata_," she replied.

"Sleep," Sam remembered. "Where?"

"_Sarcophagus,_" Janet replied. "_Ancient technology…not Goa'uld._"

"The sarcophagus is originally Ancient technology, not Goa'uld. If Janet could take the Knowledge from Jack with the healing power of the Ancients, then chances are, the sarcophagus could safely change someone's body so they could handle such a huge amount of information," Daniel explained.

"Why wouldn't the sarcophagus just take the Knowledge from her completely?" Jack asked in confusion.

Daniel paused at that. He glanced at Janet, but saw that the doctor's eyes were closed, and her breathing was even. She'd fallen back to sleep, her body needing to rest to fully heal before they could recover fully. Sam tilted her head to the side, a million thoughts running through her mind. Surprisingly it was Teal'c who came up with the answer.

"Is the Knowledge of the Ancients not unlike the relationship between symbiote and host?" Teal'c asked.

"Wait…are you saying that the knowledge of the Ancients is…sentient?" Sam asked incredulously.

"It makes sense I suppose," Daniel mused. "I mean, if the Knowledge was working with the person who downloaded it, then it must be somewhat aware of its surroundings. It wouldn't help a Goa'uld, it wouldn't allow earth to be destroyed, and it was trying to get Jack to put himself into that chamber at the outpost."

"Actually…I think it might be more than sentient," Jack suddenly chimed in.

"Sir?"

Jack paused a moment, trying to think of a way to properly explain his experiences over the last few days. And while he couldn't remember what the secrets of the Ancients were, he could remember impressions and vague feelings that hadn't been his own.

"I remember hearing voices," Jack said. "Different voices all telling me different things. They worked together to explain, but each of the voices had areas they were better at than others."

"All the knowledge of the Ancients," Daniel mused to himself.

The others of SG-1 turned to look at him, wondering what knew theory Daniel had come up with. They watched as a million thoughts flickered through Daniel's mind, his face an expression of consideration and confusion.

"Daniel?" Sam eventually prodded.

"We – we know that the repository contains all the knowledge of the Ancients," Daniel began. "We've never really thought about how that knowledge is made up. Or how it came to be. So…what if, every Ancient being poured more than their knowledge into the repository? What if they put pieces of themselves inside. Echoes of who they were…"

Sam instantly caught on to where Daniel was going with his thought.

"So theoretically, the Knowledge would be made up of the thoughts and memories of thousands of different Ancients," Sam said.

"Exactly," Daniel replied. He turned to their CO, curiousity shining in his eyes. "Jack, you said you heard different voices. How many?"

Jack shrugged a little. "A lot. I couldn't tell them apart, but I knew they were all different, if that makes sense."

"Ayaina," a quiet voice murmured from behind them.

The group turned to look at Janet, who still lay with her eyes closed on the other bed.

"The Ancient being we found in Antacrtica?" Sam asked.

"_She told me_…taught me…healed Jack."

"Do you know how to heal yourself?" Sam asked, her eyebrows furrowed in worry for her friend.

Janet just shook her head, and opened her eye to look at Sam.

"_It's a part of me_," Janet explained.

The group looked to Daniel, who immediately translated it for the doctor. SG-1 traded worried glances, and Jack could feel his worry boiling over. He may not have remembered the specifics about what the Knowledge was telling him, but he could remember how strange it felt to have thousands of different voices with different aspects of knowledge crammed inside your mind. It wasn't something he would wish on anyone.

"Colonel O'Neill, glad to see you're awake," a bright voice stated, and SG-1 and Janet turned to look at the newcomer.

Doctor Elizabeth Weir stepped into the infirmary, a smile on her face, and a bounce in her step. She wasn't entirely certain why she was still at the SGC, but she was going to make the most of it, especially now that Vice-President Kinsey wasn't pushing his own agenda forward. She knew that being the CO of such an important facility was going to be stressful, but she was definitely up to the challenge.

Weir stepped up to Janet's bedside, and smiled softly at the other woman. "Doctor Fraiser, good to finally meet you. I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir," the blonde woman introduced herself.

Janet nodded politely at her before casting a look back at SG-1. "_My replacement?_" she asked.

Daniel cleared his throat and shook his head. "Uh, not quite. Doctor Weir is General Hammond's replacement."

Janet sat up, startled, and Sam rushed to calm her, a gentle hand touching Janet's shoulder.

"The General's fine, Janet," Sam assured her. "Just some political posturing. General Hammond was in charge of the Prometheus when we were attacking Anubis' mothership. And besides, Doctor Weir's not half bad once you get to know her."

"You're not all bad yourself, Major Carter," Weir said with a smile. "And on a more serious note, we'll be debriefing as both the Colonel and Doctor Fraiser are up to it."


	9. Return to Work

CHAPTER NINE: RETURN TO WORK

The base hadn't changed, Janet realised. Of course, in the seven years she'd been working there, there hadn't been all that many changes either, but still. She expected some things to have changed in her absence.

One thing that had changed however, was the greetings that she'd receive in the hallways. Usually airmen and the SF's would nod politely when she passed by in the hallways, but now she found herself being stopped and welcomed back. Airmen would grin at her and genuinely wish to know how she was coping. The Marines had even chipped in to buy her the biggest bouquet of flowers she'd ever received.

The Briefing Room was the same as ever, and yet Janet couldn't keep herself from looking around, just to memorise every nook and cranny. She'd spent hours in the briefing room, both for meetings, and often to stare out the observation window at the Stargate. It was a familiar room that she felt comfortable in, and as she sunk into one of the comfortable leather chairs, she couldn't help but finally accept that she truly was back on earth.

Doctor Elizabeth Weir took a seat at the head of the table, and Jack and Teal'c sat to Weir's right, while Sam, Janet and Daniel sat to Weir's left. It felt strange being seated in the middle of SG-1. She usually sat to Sam's right, closer to General Hammond, or at the end of the table, but never directly in the centre of the group. She had to admit to rather liking being part of the inner circle of the flagship team.

"Doctor Fraiser, perhaps you could begin for us by telling us exactly what happened to you on P3X-666," Doctor Weir suggested.

Janet nodded and took a breath.

"Daniel and I were _helping_ to _stabilise _Airman Wells," Janet began, Daniel quickly translating as her English failed her. "Daniel was _filming_ Well's last words to his _wife_ when I was _shot_ with a staff blast."

Sam fidgeted slightly, not liking the stark reminder of what had happened that fateful day on P3X-666. Hearing Janet's own account of it was not something that she wanted to sit through.

"The next thing I _remember_ is waking up to _bright lights_. I was in a _sarcophagus_, but Anubis wouldn't allow it to _heal _me completely. I woke up _strapped naked to a table_," Janet said, her voice and English became less certain as she related her story.

Daniel tried to keep his tone professional as he translated, but he couldn't help but feel terrible for Janet. He noticed that both Sam and Weir flinched at his last translation, and Jack's eyes narrowed as though the Colonel would have cheerfully killed the bastard who'd hurt their beloved CMO.

Janet continued her story, Daniel chipping in every few words to ensure that the others knew what was happening. SG-1's expressions were dark, until Janet came to explain her escape from Anubis's clutches, and how she'd modified the sarcophagus with the power source from the zat'n'ketls to fully integrate the Knowledge within her. She explained how the voices had told her that Anubis wouldn't be killed if his ship was destroyed. She explained that the Knowledge had told her how to return Anubis to human form, rather than being stuck between human and Ascended. She explained about the Opelia, and the attack on the ship. She outlined her escape and her dash to the Ring Transporter, and arriving in the outpost in Antarctica, and finally about healing Jack.

SG-1 could only sit and listen in shocked silence. What threw them most of all was that this fantastic tale wasn't coming from a seasoned member of an SG team. It was coming from someone who'd been offworld no more than two dozen times. Someone who had dedicated their life to doing no harm. To hear their CMO explaining about how she'd gunned down Jaffas and escaped from torment wounded something deep inside all of them. Doctor Fraiser was one of the most innocent people on base as far as they were concerned. When they thought of her as a person, they considered her a healer before being a soldier, and that distinction made it difficult for them to swallow the information bared to them.

"Well," Doctor Weird began, exhaling slowly as she tried to fully understand just what it was that the brunette woman had gone through, "I think it's safe to say that you've had a trying ordeal."

Janet nodded, noting the other woman's attempt to diffuse a tense moment. She had to admit that Doctor Weir would fit in well with the SGC, even if she couldn't imagine not being under General Hammond's command. It just seemed implausible.

"What happens now?" Janet asked.

"Now, I explain to the President that your back," Weir replied. "And we try and explain to the public how it is that someone that we buried has miraculously returned."

Janet frowned, her eyebrows furrowing. She hadn't really given all that much thought about what things had been like on this side of the galaxy. To hear that the SGC had considered her to be dead was something of a shock.

"And Cassandra?" Janet inquired softly. "When can I see her?"

Sam paled considerably. She hadn't even given a single thought to Cassandra's reaction to Janet's return. The orphaned girl they'd found on Hanka considered Janet a second mother, and if anyone had the right to know that Janet had been returned to them, it was Cassie.

"I'm sure we can arrange for her to visit the base soon," Doctor Weird assured her.

"Soon?" Janet repeated. "With all due respect Doctor Weir…that's not good enough. I want to see my daughter."

Whatever response Elizabeth had been expecting, she hadn't been expecting that. She glanced around the table to see SG-1 hiding smirks, though Teal'c was the only one to successfully hide his.

"We'll get her here Doc," Jack promised. He'd forgotten how much he enjoyed watching the Doc argue with someone. That she was arguing with Weir was just an added bonus really. And it wasn't that he didn't like their new CO, but he just really preferred Hammond over Weir. But watching Doc Fraiser put her down was definitely his favourite event of the day.

"Thank you sir," Janet said gratefully.

"Well, I figure I probably owe you a few favours, huh?" Jack replied. "I can't imagine myself allowing that Knowledge crap to stay in my head indefinitely."

"I figure it could come in handy one day," Janet replied.

"That's putting it mildly I think," Daniel said.

"Very mildly," Sam agreed.

Doctor Weir leant forward and looked intently at Janet. "Is there anything that you can tell us that would be useful?"

Janet leant back in her chair and glanced at the blonde doctor.

"I know where the lost city of Atlantis is," she replied calmly. "Think that's useful?"


	10. Return to Normal

CHAPTER TEN: RETURN TO NORMAL

"You're really not going?" Sam asked incredulously.

Janet looked across at her best friend, her eyes and facial expression the only answer Sam needed.

"It's the opportunity of a lifetime," Sam argued. "This could be our one shot at actually _going_ to Atlantis, and you're really not going to go?"

"Sam…we've talked about this. I didn't come all the way back to earth just to be flung into a galaxy far, far away. I have responsibilities here," Janet replied.

"Yeah, but…I mean, you're not the CMO anymore," Sam reasoned. "I mean, you volunteered to step down and everything. We all just assumed that you'd _want_ to go to Atlantis as soon as the ZPM was up and running."

Janet sighed and ran her hands through her hair.

"Geez Sam, make her feel welcome here, why don'tcha?" Cassandra stated ironically as she walked into the Fraiser kitchen, having caught the tail end of the conversation.

Sam rolled her eyes and glanced between her best friend and her surrogate niece. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"I know that Sam," Janet assured her.

"I just mean that you could get a lot of answers there," Sam said.

Janet nodded, knowing that on some level Sam was right.

"Yeah, I could. But then what? I don't need the answers Sam. I've got a lot of answers right here," she said, tapping the side of her head. "You talked to the Asgard. They said they couldn't help me, and…y'know, I'm okay with that. I can do a lot of good right here on earth Sam. And Atlantis…it's missing a lot of things. My family for one thing."

Sam had the grace to look sheepish at Janet's pointed remark.

"And besides, it's kinda cool being able to explain something technical to _you_, Colonel," Janet teased, grateful to see Sam's answering grin, both at the use of Sam's new title, and the fact that Sam was completely fascinated and baffled by the technology that Janet was beginning to share with them all. "I'm sure Elizabeth will take good care of the Atlantis crew. My life is here Sam. No matter how much Ancient Knowledge is being stored in my head."

It had been a hard decision, but Janet had declined taking back her position as the CMO of the SGC. Having the Knowledge of the Ancients in her head made things a little more complicated than her former life had been. She didn't think that allowing herself to be in charge of such an important medical facility was in the best interests of anyone at the SGC.

General Jack O'Neill hadn't been thrilled when Janet had turned down the offer, but he was grateful to have her back on earth and still on the base. She was now the Head of the Ancient Technology Research Team, and the personal physician of several members who had requested her as their primary physician. SG-1 was among those that she still attended to for pre and post-mission physicals, though anything that required more skill was turned over to Doctor Brightman, the new CMO of the SGC. Janet had assured the new General that she would be more than willing to help heal particularly wounded team members if it couldn't be done with their own technology. Healing people with merely a thought, while an incredible gift, was not something to be abused. Not to mention the fact that she ended up completely exhausted after healing someone.

Doctor Elizabeth Weir had been appointed as the leader for the Atlantis mission, and she'd practically begged Janet to join them when the team was set to go through to the Pegasus Galaxy. Janet had had to respectfully decline, no matter how curious she was to personally see the place she had so many memories of. Her place was with her family, and she would help the SGC in whatever way she could now that she had the Knowledge to help create better defences.

And regardless of the pressure put on her by certain political figures to provide offensive weapons, Janet would not be swayed to help produce weapons of mass destruction. She had her morals, and she lived by her oaths, and while the Knowledge trusted her to make her own decisions in regards to providing technology, it was in agreement with the doctor about defensive technology before offensive weapons.

Major Janet Fraiser had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel two weeks after Sam Carter's promotion, and the women couldn't have been more thrilled with their new titles. General Jack O'Neill had relished the opportunity to promote the two officers, and he'd been immensely grateful when the President had allowed the ceremonies to go ahead.

For SG-1, things couldn't have been better. They had their doctor back, Sam had her best friend, Daniel was seriously considering letting Janet know that he was quite possibly in love with her, Teal'c knew he was in far better hands in regards to his Tretonin shots and his general health, and Jack had someone to verbally spar with again. Cassandra had her mother back, and life was just about perfect.

The simultaneous electronic chirps startled both women, and taking out their beepers, they glanced at one another and grinned wryly.

"Time to go save the world, I suppose," Sam said.

"Either that or General Jack wants donuts," Janet teased.

Sam grinned and grabbed for her car keys. Life was definitely just about perfect.

END


End file.
